Below we have provided a list of books that may be of interest to our readers and researchers that are not published through ADST. Read any of these books if you’re interested in learning more about specific subjects or life as a diplomat.
Judith Raine Baroody, Media Access and the Military: The Case of the Gulf War (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 199GG ADST’s former Executive Director examines whether journalists should be physically present on battlefields during combat. Focusing on Desert Storm, she conducted oral histories with 11 Defense Department public affairs officers and 14 journalists for an account of the conflict between the USG and the media over national security and freedom of the press.
G. R. Berridge, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice 5th edition (Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) – From perhaps the most prolific contemporary writer on diplomacy comes this fully updated edition of his now-classic work. Berridge’s thorough treatment of negotiation and diplomatic momentum includes both current examples––the Iran nuclear talks and the Budapest Memorandum on Ukraine––and historical background to diplomatic methods. New chapters cover secret intelligence and economic and commercial diplomacy.
––––––, A Diplomatic Whistleblower in the Victorian Era: The Life and Writings of E. C. Grenville-Murray (Istanbul: Isis Press, 2017) – The first biography of Grenville-Murray, a brilliant, complex man, reputedly one of the greatest 19th century journalists, who combined diplomacy with pseudonymous journalism. Writing as “the Roving Englishman,” he was known to Americans as the Paris correspondent of the New York Herald. His satirical assaults on the British diplomatic service finally got him sacked while he served as consul-general in Odessa.
––––––, Embassies in Armed Conflict (New York: Continuum, Key Studies in Diplomacy, 2012). – A leading scholar of diplomacy explores the performance of embassies in times of war. With many historical examples, from the British Embassy in Indonesia in the 1960s to today’s nation-building adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, Professor Berridge illustrates the wide variety of uses to which the modern embassy can be put.
Jody G. Brotherston, Arthur Byne’s Diplomatic Legacy: The Architect, Author, and Entrepreneur in Spain – Arthur Byne’s unique Madrid house has served as both the residence of the U.S. deputy chief of mission and a venue for U.S. diplomatic endeavors over seven decades. Professor Brotherston’s book recounts Byne’s accomplishments and a great deal more about Spanish culture, architecture, and antiquities, as reflected in the Byne House.
Ron Capps, Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years, A Memoir (Schaffner Press, 2014) – The founding director of the Veterans Writing Project recounts his traumatic years investigating and documenting wars in Kosovo, Central Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur as a senior military intelligence officer and as a Foreign Service officer.
Carman Cunningham, Wander Woman: Life and the Foreign Service (paperback 2018) – The memoir of a Foreign Service officer’s career and life during an intriguing, cross-cultural, sometimes even glamorous forty years in Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Antipodes, and Eurasia.
Walter Cutler, Wandering the World: Personal Recollections of a Life in Diplomacy (an Amazon Kindle e-book, 2019) – A lively tour behind the diplomatic scenes in challenging assignments: twice as ambassador to Saudi Arabia; as the first—and last—named ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran; as ambassador to Mobutu’s Zaire and Bourguiba’s Tunisia; and as an FSO in newly independent Algeria, war-scarred Korea, and wartime Vietnam.
Mark W. Erwin, The Practical Ambassador: A Common Sense Guide for United States Ambassadors (Charlotte, N.C.: Avenir Press, 2012) – A useful handbook with practical insights and advice to help smooth the transition into diplomatic service and throughout one’s posting abroad, based on Mark Erwin’s own experience as a politically appointed ambassador.
Stephen H. Grant, Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) – ADST Senior Fellow Stephen Grant tells the American success story of Henry and Emily Folger of Brooklyn, whose love of Shakespeare and collecting led them to create the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., now housing over 275,000 books.
Lawrence E. Harrison, Jews, Confucians, and Protestants: Cultural Capital and the End of Multiculturalism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) – Lawrence Harrison, former USAID mission director and author of the seminal Underdevelopment Is a State of Mind, here makes the politically incorrect case for the superiority of some cultures’ values in encouraging democratic governance, social justice, and the elimination of poverty. He analyzes the performance of 117 countries grouped by predominant religions and argues against the belief that no culture is better or worse than any other.
Thomas L. Hughes, Anecdotage: Some Authentic Retrievals (Create Space, 2014) – A former assistant secretary of state (under Kennedy and Johnson) and a quintessential Washington insider recalls the lighter moments of a lifetime in politics (with Hubert Humphrey and Chester Bowles), diplomacy, intelligence, and the foundation world (as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).
Thomas L. Hughes, Speaking Up and Speaking Out (Xlibris, 2013) – “Off-the-record” speeches delivered in 1964–69 by the State Department’s director of intelligence and research that repeatedly challenged audiences inside and outside the government to think more broadly, deepy, and creatively about foreign policy.
Thomas R. Hutson and Dominic B.I.A. Tzimisces, Doug and Wahwee – Douglas MacArthur II, the General’s Nephew, and His Unconventional Wife: Their Life in the Foreign Service (Omaha, Neb.: River Junction Press) – The little-known story of career diplomat Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II and his wife, Wahwee, is portrayed in this collection of anecdotes by those who knew them best.
Dennis C. Jett, The Iran Nuclear Deal: Bombs, Bureaucrats, and Billionaires (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) – Jett examines attempts to influence the outcome of the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear capabilities, in particular the struggles within the United States around public and congressional opinion. Trying to prevent a successful outcome to the talks became a cottage industry in Washington. The book shows how a contentious foreign policy issue can become a wide-ranging fight involving scores of nongovernmental organizations, the media, and thousands of activists.
Ronald Angelo Johnson, Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 2014) – A former diplomat and CIA analyst now teaching history at Texas State University, Ron Johnson details the aspirations and diplomacy of the revolutionary Americans and Dominguans and how this cross-cultural cooperation helped bring forth the new nation of Haiti. along the way altering Atlantic world discussions of slavery and race. The Dominguan conflict was also the U.S. Navy’s first military action on behalf of a foreign ally.
Catherine Jones and Elaine Trujillo, The Calories In, Calories Out Cookbook (The Experiment, 2014) – Food writer and former Foreign Service “brat” Jones and nutritionist Trujillo present an illustrated collection of “200 everyday recipes that take the guesswork out of counting calories––plus the exercise it takes to burn them off.”
David T. Jones and David Kilgour, David vs David (The Book): We Agree to Disagree (paperback and e-book, 2019) – Five years’ worth of the biweekly columns of a retired U.S. diplomat (Jones) and a retired Canadian member of Parliament (Kilgour) in three volumes: on domestic issues, foreign affairs/international relations, and separately published pieces
Harry W. Kopp and John K. Naland, Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the US Foreign Service, 3rd ed. (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2017) – An insider’s guide to the Foreign Service that explores the five career tracks through the authors’ own experience and hundreds of interviews. The book lays out what to expect, from the entrance exam through midcareer and into the senior service––how to get in, get around, and get ahead.
Wolfgang J. Lehmann, A Seat in the Front Row: Recollections of a Foreign Service Officer in the Cold War, ed. and intro. by Walter G. Lehmann (paperback, 2019) – From Anzio to Saigon, this expansive memoir recounts the life of a US diplomat spanning eight presidents that included postwar refugee policy, the European Bureau, deputy ambassador in Saigon, and consul general in Frankfurt.
Bill Lenderking, The Soul Murderer (Books First) – Written by a former diplomat, this novel is a realistic and believable depiction of life at unglamorous diplomatic posts. It’s an engaging story that will keep your interest and cast some light on a subject that few of us know much about.
Michael Quentin Morton, Buraimi: The Struggle for Power, Influence and Oil in Arabia (New York: I.B. Tauris) – This entertaining and thoroughly researched book is both a story of a decisive conflict in the history of Middle East politics and also of the great changes that the discovery of oil brought to this previously desolate land. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s oral history interview with Parker T. Hart was used as a primary source in this book.
J. Robert Moskin, American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) – Some fifteen years in the making, Robert Moskin has expertly filled a huge gap in our knowledge of what the Foreign Service is and how its members serve America. This is the first comprehensive book telling the story of America’s diplomatic corps, from the days of Ben Franklin through the 2013 induction of John Kerry as our country’s Secretary of State. Moskin profiles the men and women behind the scenes whose dedication and sacrifices have been a crucial part of our history for over two centuries, and who laid the foundation for the craft of American diplomacy.
Laurence Pope, The Demilitarization of American Diplomacy: Two Cheers for Striped Pants (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) – A retired U.S. diplomat critiques what he characterizes as the institutional dysfunction of American diplomacy. The State Department and the career Foreign Service, he argues, are overshadowed by a powerful military-intelligence bureaucracy and need reinvention.
Nicolas M. Salgo [1914–2005], as told to Mathew J. Burns III, Success Begins after 5:00 p.m. (North Charleston, South Carolina: Create Space, 2007) – A candid memoir, from the author’s early childhood in Budapest and immigration to America in 1948, to his real estate development work in New York and Washington, including the Watergate complex, and his return to Budapest in 1983 as U.S. ambassador, followed by years as a State Department special property negotiator.
Galen L. Stone, Bridges: A Memoir (Marion, Mass.: Memoirs Unlimited, 2008) – The autobiography of a World War II Army officer and career Foreign Service officer (1947–1981) in Europe and Asia.
Jenny and Sherry Thompson, The Kremlinologist: Llewelyn E. Thompson, America’s Man in Cold War Moscow (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018) – Thompson’s daughters thoroughly document his life as an accomplished career diplomat, one of the most crucial Cold War actors and the ‘unsung hero”of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The authors bring new material to light, including important information on the U-2, Kennan’s containment policy, and Thompson’s role in U.S. covert operations machinery.
Susan Lewis Solomont, Lost and Found in Spain: Tales of an Ambassador’s Wife (paperback, 2018) – Part memoir, part travelogue, this insider’s account of everyday life in the U.S. mission to Spain by the ambassador’s wife tells of a time of self-discovery while navigating a new life, learning the rules of a diplomatic household, and finding her place in the Madrid Jewish community.
Ronald Trigg, The Alluring Temptress: Stories from Africa (2014) – Retired U.S. diplomat Ron Trigg chronicles his encounters in Africa in 1972–92 in thirty-six stand-alone stories set in eighteen countries, including his Foreign Service years in Nigeria (1984–86) and in the dying days of apartheid South Africa (1988–92).
Daniel Whitman with assistance from Kari Jaksa, Outsmarting Apartheid: An Oral History of South Africa’s Cultural and Educational Exchange with the United States, 1960-1999 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2014). – Thirty-five interviews with South African and American participants in USG-funded cultural and educational exchanges during apartheid, covering the arts, education, law, public service, science, and community. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s oral history interviews conducted in 2010 by Daniel Whitman were a primary source in this book.
Nicholas J. Willis, Frances Elizabeth Willis: Up the Foreign Service Ladder to the Summit–Despite the Limitations of Her Sex (2013) – a biography by her nephew of the first woman career Foreign Service officer and the first appointed chargé, DCM, then ambassador to three countries––Switzerland, Norway, and Ceylon––career minister, and, finally, career ambassador. Frances Willis accomplished all this in the face of massive gender bias and paved the way for the women who followed. In addition, before entering the service, she earned a PhD in political science from Stanford University.